Beware HP's Bearing Gifts!

 

The illustration above shows one of the most celebrated Roman statues in history. When the Laocoön Group was dug up in 1506 it astonished all those who saw it. The central figure in particular has been praised for being the ultimate depiction of human agony. Its facial expression and posture very skilfully project the animated feeling of suffering. The sculptor is unknown and the work could have been made at any time between about 200 BC and 70 AD. It was found under a vineyard in Rome and immediately moved to the Vatican museum where it remains on display to the present day. This life-size classic sculpture is based on a very old and famous Greek myth, the Siege of Troy. At the end of the Trojan War, the Greek attackers surrounded their enemies in the city of Troy, but the defenders were determined not to surrender. Therefore the Greeks came up with a cunning plan; they pretended to give up and go away, but they left behind a wooden sculpture in the shape of a giant horse. This was supposedly an act of chivalry, a tribute to the courage of their enemy. The Trojans were delighted and eagerly accepted the gift. However, the horse was hollow and inside was a contingent of heavily armed Greek troops. As soon as the horse had been moved inside the fortified walls of the city the Greeks burst out of their hiding place and attacked, conquering the final holdout of their enemy. However, there was one Trojan who saw through the trick and begged his fellow citizens not to fall for it. He was a priest called Laocoön and he warned the others with the classic line: "Beware Greeks bearing gifts!" The other Trojans did not believe him and any who might have been wavering were convinced to keep their mouths shut when Athena, the Greek goddess for war, sent a pair of sea serpents up from the depths. They crawled out of the water, grabbed Laocoön and his two sons and dragged them into the sea where they all perished. Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZmTQIFA9fY.
 
I wonder if any readers will spot the cruel irony in this story before I explain it to you. Of all the villains in classical mythology, the Cyclopses, Minotaurs and gorgons, the worst fate of all is saved for the person who refuses to conform to society's agreed falsehoods. What's more it is this punishment above all others, more so even than Sisyphus, see: https://hpanwo-hpwa.blogspot.com/2015/10/an-open-letter-to-richard-dawkins.html, that guided the hand of one of the best sculptors who ever lived. Laocoön is the ultimate example of what George Orwell talked about when he said that telling the truth is a revolutionary act. Perhaps a better reference is Joseph Goebbels, Germany's minister of propaganda under Adolf Hitler. Goebbels once said: "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can only be maintained for as long as the state can shield the people from the political, economic and military consequences of the lie. It therefore becomes vitally important for the state to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie; and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the state." And, to be frank, one of those lies is that hospital porters are lowlifes and that to be one and proud of it is the truth enemy. This belief very quickly can reach the absurd extreme of the instinctive and violent rejection of those who challenge the belief. This is because there is a part of all of those believers who know there is another side to the story that, if told, would totally neutralize that precious deception. Another classic line from a more recent piece of fiction, the Wachowski's film The Matrix, is very telling indeed. The Morpheus character says: "You have to understand, most people are not ready to be unplugged; and many of them are so inured and so hopelessly dependent on the system that they will fight to protect it." I know this sounds arrogant of me, but I can't think of any other explanation. It fits like a glove when considering the behaviour of "Jack Shaw", see: https://hpanwo-hpwa.blogspot.com/2023/05/i-lied-to-jack.html. This also explains why, in a health service that has an extraordinary and disgusting indolence when it comes to abysmal standards of service, they are willing to take up arms vigorously against people who merely disagree with the lies everybody else tells each other and are considered essential for maintaining the status quo. In that sense, I am the HPing Laocoön... Yes, I know, I was never attacked and drowned by sea serpents, but I'm sure if the OxRad Trust management had been granted the powers of the Greek gods they would have made sure those serpents would have coursing up the Isis the moment I was suspended. As it was they did punish me in as brutal a way as they could within their real abilities. What a sad state of affairs. What can be done to change things?
See here for background: https://hpanwo-hpwa.blogspot.com/2025/01/thirteen-years-on.html.